1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a host apparatus, an image forming apparatus, and a self-diagnosis method for the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an image forming apparatus (such as a printer, a facsimile, and a multi-functional device) performs printing on a print medium (such as a printing paper, a transparency, and film) of an image (such as a text and/or a picture) according to a user printing command. If any defect occurs in a printed matter while performing printing, a user may inspect a cause of the defect and fix the defect through solutions such as a help option or the like provided in the image forming apparatus, or may request a repair service for the image forming apparatus from a manufacturer.
In the case of the defect caused by a component having a limited life span, such as a developer, the image forming apparatus generally provides a basic solution to detect a remaining amount of a toner in the developer and output a message to notify a user whether to replace the developer without any other actions to be taken. However, if the defect is caused by simple problems other than the remaining amount of the toner, a user is likely to request the repair service because of insufficient information about the cause of the defect, even though the user may be able to easily fix the defect, thereby wasting time and money.
In the case of the repair service request, a manufacturer may provide a Printer Self Diagnosis System (PSDS) that can inspect the image forming apparatus remotely and fix the defect, to reduce the cost. In this case, the PSDS diagnoses information regarding the defect in a remote manner, and analyzes the type of the defect based on the diagnosis information to fix the defect occurring in the image forming apparatus.
A conventional PSDS of an image forming apparatus is designed such that a user accesses a website of a manufacturer through a communication network (such as the Internet), selects an image that most closely resembles a defect in question among printing images provided by the manufacturer, and provides a solution corresponding to the selected image to the user online.
In this way, the conventional PSDS diagnoses remotely based on printing images one-sidedly provided by a manufacturer. However, the images provided online are not actually printed images, but are images provided by a manufacturer. Furthermore, the images provided online are difficult to identify and, thus, a user may diagnose the defect incorrectly.